World Socionics

I have re-watched 'Westworld' recently, the 1973 film directed and written directly for the screen by Michael Crichton . I was struck by how the movie's basic assumptions, so to speak, as well as those of the main character, fit the psychology of LIEs . From other evidence, I think that Crichton was a LIE , so I'm not using the movie as a tool to type him - I intend to show how his type was reflected in the story and characters as he wrote them. As he was the writer as well as director, we can safely attribute the movie, as shot, mainly to him (although it seems that his original script was longer and more detailed). Obviously, as I discuss the movie, there will be *SPOILERS* for those who haven't watched it yet. Those who know the movie, or can't be bothered to read the plot summary, may skip the next 9 paragraphs to the Socionics analysis just below. Summary: "Westworld" describes a theme-based amusement park for wealth...

The following information is available about the 16th Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus . The broad-brush history of his life and reign, from many sources; eyewitness reports from people who knew him, like the historian Cassius Dio; his personal correspondence with one of his teachers, Fronto; the general impression he made on his contemporaries, as reported; and, finally, his book, the so-called "Meditations", actually his sort of "personal blog", a disjointed collection of his thoughts which he wrote down for distraction, relief, or reflection; apparently never meant for publication. 'Meditations' has so many individual items that can, in isolation, arguably be used to support many typings. I will give here my own summary of the main points and themes. It contains several brief descriptions of the character of individuals close to him and what he felt he owed them in building his character. He describes twice his predecesso...

Nicholas II was Russia's last ruling Tsar, from the death of his father Alexander III in 1894 to his own abdication during WWI in 1917. During his reign Russia went through several upheavals, including loss of international prestige at the hands of Japan and Austria-Hungary, a revolution in 1905 that led to partial limitation of the Tsar's power in the 1906 constitution, and finally Russia's entry in WWI, which he arguably also had a hand in starting. We are fortunate to have a good description of him by Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss who for 13 years taught French to Nicholas's children and who came to know him well: "Endowed with remarkable personal qualities, he was the incarnation of all that was noblest and most chivalrous in the Russian nature. But he was weak. The soul of loyalty, he was the slave of his pledged word. His fidelity to the Allies, which was probably the cause of his death, proves it beyond doubt. He despised the methods of diplomac...

Richard Milhous Nixon was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th US president from 1969 to 1974. Having fought in WWII in the Pacific, immediately afterwards he started a very successful political career, from Congressman to Senator to Vice-President under Eisenhower, but then losing, very narrowly, the 1960 presidential election to John Kennedy ( EIE ). He narrowly won the 1968 election but won 49 states when re-elected in 1972 - only to have to resign in August 1974, the only US president to have done so. Nixon's career suggests as common traits personal drive and ambition, careerism, political pragmatism and the presence of goals rather than ideology or political principles. As he himself described in his memoirs, he saw the 1946 election to Congress as a career move, rather than following a vocation. In his early days in Congress, he achieved national fame for his role in prosecuting Alger Hiss for pro-Soviet activities, which led him to bein...

Unlike other ESIs in this gallery, George Walker Bush , the 43rd President of the United States, would not be described by many people, also not by himself, as an 'intellectual'. Yet, this Yale history graduate has been described as a keen reader of biographies, allegedly his favorite reading. He also has shown a personal-relationship side to international politics, (in)famously saying that he knew he could trust Vladimir Putin ( LSI)  after looking deeply into his eyes, and asking the Brazilian president for an evaluation of Hugo Chavez (SLE) in the same fashion, that is, what was Chavez like if you looked deeply into his eyes. This pattern of approaching international relations from the perspective of the character of individuals is consistent with George W. Bush's chief strength as a businessman and politician: namely, his skill in establishing rapports with individuals and coming across as a regular guy with whom you could drink a beer, in a way that co...

Hypatia  was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, in the late 4th - early 5th century, when Egypt was a Roman province. The reliable facts about her life are limited, but they arguably suffice for an idea of her type. Hypatia was the head of the Platonist school of Alexandria; her father, Theon, was also a mathematician who edited and commented on Euclid's works. No works by Hypatia herself survive but besides some historical narratives we have the letters her former student Synesius, as bishop of a neighboring province, wrote to her. They include a request for her to build him a hydrometer, the earliest historical mention of that device, and a discussion on astrolabes. From his letters, and the accounts, it is clear that Hypatia was highly respected not just because of her academic standing but as a person of wisdom and integrity. It is also likely that many among the upper classes of Alexandria had been among her studen...

Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko is an Ukrainian politician, businesswoman, some would say 'oligarch', twice prime minister, and unsuccessful presidential candidate. She was born and raised in the communist era, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, having had a modest childhood and upbringing. Having studied economics and married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, Yulia worked as an economics engineers as the Soviet regime started collapsing in 1989. Then, making use of her husband's government connections, they went into private enterprise, first in video rentals, then in oil-and-gas trading. She swiftly became a multimillionaire. Her career in that regard parallels those of the more famous Russian oligarchs: a combination of seizing opportunities, entrepreneurial spirit, and exploiting connections, all in a situation of legal confusion in the chaotic transition of a state-controlled economy to a largely privatized one as well as of the establishment of Ukraine as an i...